Katrina's Reaction
by TheBoglies
Summary: What would have Katrina's reaction been to Archie and Lexie's news? By: SnowWhite
1. Part 1

**Katrina's Reaction**

**Part 1**

**By: Snow White**

The letter floated to a stop as it landed on the coffee table in front of her, Katrina sat in shock...  
Lexie and Archie? The two names pulsated at her mind like a drum, pulling at the drawstrings of her heart.  
Katrina stood, walked to the kitchen cupboard, turned and walked back. Then shaking her head decidedly walked back up to the cupboard and pulled out the nearest bottle of alcohol.  
They were engaged. That's what the letter had said. Engaged to be married! Archie had asked Lexie to marry him, to be his wife, to be the Lady of Glenbogle... How could that be? They couldn't have been together more than a year, and yet he felt so compelled by love that he would ask her the most important question of his life?  
Last time she had been at Glenbogle Lexie had been the housekeeper/ cook, true, she had been Archie's best friend but...but....  
  
Katrina thought about herself and Archie-  
Half the time that they had been together they couldn't communicate, even just to get him to ask her out had been a trial that had lasted a year. Now here he was with another woman, who he hadn't even been with for a year- and he was asking her to marry him?!  
How long had it taken for Archie and her to finally come to some sort of conclusion about what they felt about each other? And yet here he was willing to settle down and live forever with Lexie in such a short period.  
Why was it different? What did he feel for Lexie that he hadn't felt for her? Would he have ever asked her to be his wife? Had he ever loved her? He'd never really said he had, he told her he fancied her as such, called her sweetheart and other pet names, but had never actually mentioned the 'L' word.  
This grated on her now, more then it ever had before. She had just assumed that it was part of their communication problems, she knew it generally took quite a bit to get a man to say, "I love you" and actually mean it. Yet with Lexie he was throwing around the word like it was some huge revelation.  
And what did Lexie have? Nothing. She wasn't rich, she didn't have a prominent blood line or a well-known family, she worked for him. She had nothing to tempt a Laird to marry her except for her personality and beauty.  
He had to love her to be willing to marry her, his father would not approve, and neither would a lot of his family. He was the son and heir to Glenbogle Estate, he would have had to fight to marry Lexie from word go.  
This couldn't have been something that he had just decided to do on a whim. A lot of thought and consternation would have had to be involved....which made the whole thing even worse.  
And Hector dead? How could that be, and in such a tragic way. She had liked Hector in a funny kind of way; Glenbogle certainly wouldn't be the same without him. Poor Molly, how would she be coping? And Archie. Archie. The name still had meaning for her, too much meaning. Why had she ever left him? Ever given him the chance to fall for someone else.  
'It was true what they said', Katrina thought sullenly, as the alcohol she was downing began to take effect, 'You could never go home again.'


	2. Part 2

Katrina's Reaction – Part 2  
  
Katrina packed her bag without Lizzie knowing a thing- there was no way that she could tell her friend what she was about to do.  
It was now roughly a year after she had read the letter telling her that Archie was marrying Lexie, since then she had also heard that Lexie had run away from the first wedding. But to her dismay they had got back together and were still engaged.  
If Lexie had run away from the first wedding, what was to say that she wouldn't run from the second one as well - Katrina knew deep down that there was still a chance for her and Archie.  
Archie had gone to Lexie way to fast, Katrina had known that all along, there was still the chance that he could love her instead of Lexie, and that Lexie had just been in the right place at the right time.  
Either way, she was going to find out for herself, she'd had enough sitting around contemplating the issue when other things didn't occupy her mind. She would find out once and for all if Archie McDonald had or did love her as much as she did him.  
  
The add in her old local paper had inspired the idea- they we're looking for a new head teacher for the school. Who else was better qualified then her? And the town knew her; she had grown up there- that was a very important factor when applying for a job in a small community.   
She could fairly imagine Archie's face when he saw her at the interviews; imagine his reaction at seeing her again. Only once did the notion that Lexie might also be there appear in her mind, before she resolutely squashed it back down to insignificance.  
Lexie hadn't turned up to her wedding. That was all there was to it. She had got Archie MacDonald to propose to her somehow and then had let him down- embarrassed him in front of his friends and family, the thought was just too much.  
Lexie didn't deserve Archie, and she was going to find out the truth about his feelings towards her. Katrina seriously doubted that Archie did love Lexie- how could he?  
Thoughts about how close the two had been when she was still there, again tried to fight their way through the turmoil in her mind, but again she suppressed anything that wasn't complementary to her cause.  
She would know soon enough. And then everything would flow from there, she was sure of it. No one would stop her going home and laying claim to all the things that were rightfully hers.


End file.
